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A review by rebeccazh
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
4.0
This book is very different from the first. Where The Fifth Season was sort of fantasy, sort of post-apocalypse, this book is sort of science fiction and apocalypse. It's even darker in tone, and there are some downright gruesome/body horror stuff. Heavy spoilers below and this is a very long review.
The bad: still some pacing issues. This book has three narrators, Essun, Nassun and Schaffa. Essun's parts were full of info-dumping. She is in the underground community and Alabaster appeared at the end of the last book. I was excited to see him because he's a really interesting character. Unfortunately, he was only here as a character to provide information.
For nearly her entire arc, Essun reacts and doesn't really act. She is very similar to Jonathan Sims from the podcast, The Magnus Archive. A protagonist who is new to the world, so they are one step behind everyone else, and mostly reacting or belatedly understanding the consequences of their actions. I mean, I don't think I would have done as well as her if this was real life, but it made for a frustrating read, coz she was just confused and powerless. So her chapters had very little action and it was mostly worldbuilding. It was great to finally get some answers though. And some of the answers really blew me away.
Second, there is just something about NK Jemisin's writing that I don't quite like. I can't figure it out. While she's really good at narrative and reflection, the character dialogue is mostly boring, and the character interactions didn't really shine.
The good: all the good parts of the first book continue here. The social commentary is so sharp! I highlighted so many sentences. Jemisin really explores the lived experience of someone who is seen as a monster, treated as a second-class citizen, exploited, feared and oppressed. It is especially evident in Nassun's narrative.
Nassun is Essun's lost daughter, and in the first book Essun searches for her with fury, grief and fear. You would think Nassun would want to be back with her. But Nassun's chapters reveal that she actually resents and hates her mother a little. Nassun is almost happier being with her father who killed her brother. She travels with him and uses her powers to do kill to protect him. She then meets Schaffa, who is apparently reformed and sort of good now, no longer that sinister and creepy father figure in the first book, and she instantly attaches to him as her new father figure. He seems to love her. She loves him fiercely and devotedly because he is the only person who seems to accept, love and protect her.
Her narrative explores the really complex emotions and psychology of growing up under a great deal of trauma and cruelty. Essun was abused by the Fulcrum since she was a child, and was basically taught that love is conditional, and love comes with pain and fear. Schaffa broke her hand to show he loved her. It was really screwed up. In this book, we find that this is what Essun does to Nassun. She broke her own daughter's hand to prove a point. She is harsh and critical with her. Later on, Nassun unwittingly understands Essun because she almost wants to control and override Schaffa's will because she 'loves' him. She stops herself in time, but this recurring pattern was really powerful. It reminded me of intergenerational trauma, where the parent passes down the trauma they experienced to their child, and the child then passes it down to their child...
But it also makes you think about how there is almost no space for love in a harsh and cruel world like this. Essun says she did it to keep Nassun alive. Better Nassun hate her than be dead. This, of course, makes me think about how Essun smothered her own baby son because she thought, better he die than he live as a slave. And later on, Nassun sees how completely her father is consumed by hatred, and she has to kill her own father or he would kill her. She is so overcome by grief and fury that she chooses to hate and blame Essun for it. She thinks, her mother can take her hatred. It makes you wonder if love is even possible.
Nassun's relationships are all incredibly complex. Her father is a piece of shit, by the way. I couldn't stand him. He was traumatised by something horrible that orogenes did when he was young, and as a result, he sees every orogene as that orogene, even his own children. He kills his son and alternates between love and hatred for his daughter. That's trauma - you're frozen in the past at that incident, and you see everything through the lens of the past. Nassun is forced to read his motivations and manipulate him to keep herself safe.
This is not even touching on Nassun's relationship with Schaffa and her view of orogenes, people like herself, and her own feelings about herself. It's incredibly complex.
Nassun herself gave me complicated feelings. She is basically a child prodigy. Very powerful and gifted, able to do a lot of difficult things easily. Her main motivations are survival, and ensuring that her parental figures (Schaffa, her father) love her. She's a child thrust into a horrible situation and I was bothered by a lot of things she did.
I still don't trust Schaffa and he kind of creeps me out.
The hostility and blaming that Essun experiences again reminded me of The Magnus Archive. A lot of times when there's a lot of trauma, people blame and fight each other.
Anyway, this was a great book, with some pacing issues. Now, on to the next book.
The bad: still some pacing issues. This book has three narrators, Essun, Nassun and Schaffa. Essun's parts were full of info-dumping. She is in the underground community and Alabaster appeared at the end of the last book. I was excited to see him because he's a really interesting character. Unfortunately, he was only here as a character to provide information.
For nearly her entire arc, Essun reacts and doesn't really act. She is very similar to Jonathan Sims from the podcast, The Magnus Archive. A protagonist who is new to the world, so they are one step behind everyone else, and mostly reacting or belatedly understanding the consequences of their actions. I mean, I don't think I would have done as well as her if this was real life, but it made for a frustrating read, coz she was just confused and powerless. So her chapters had very little action and it was mostly worldbuilding. It was great to finally get some answers though. And some of the answers really blew me away.
Second, there is just something about NK Jemisin's writing that I don't quite like. I can't figure it out. While she's really good at narrative and reflection, the character dialogue is mostly boring, and the character interactions didn't really shine.
The good: all the good parts of the first book continue here. The social commentary is so sharp! I highlighted so many sentences. Jemisin really explores the lived experience of someone who is seen as a monster, treated as a second-class citizen, exploited, feared and oppressed. It is especially evident in Nassun's narrative.
Nassun is Essun's lost daughter, and in the first book Essun searches for her with fury, grief and fear. You would think Nassun would want to be back with her. But Nassun's chapters reveal that she actually resents and hates her mother a little. Nassun is almost happier being with her father who killed her brother. She travels with him and uses her powers to do kill to protect him. She then meets Schaffa, who is apparently reformed and sort of good now, no longer that sinister and creepy father figure in the first book, and she instantly attaches to him as her new father figure. He seems to love her. She loves him fiercely and devotedly because he is the only person who seems to accept, love and protect her.
Her narrative explores the really complex emotions and psychology of growing up under a great deal of trauma and cruelty. Essun was abused by the Fulcrum since she was a child, and was basically taught that love is conditional, and love comes with pain and fear. Schaffa broke her hand to show he loved her. It was really screwed up. In this book, we find that this is what Essun does to Nassun. She broke her own daughter's hand to prove a point. She is harsh and critical with her. Later on, Nassun unwittingly understands Essun because she almost wants to control and override Schaffa's will because she 'loves' him. She stops herself in time, but this recurring pattern was really powerful. It reminded me of intergenerational trauma, where the parent passes down the trauma they experienced to their child, and the child then passes it down to their child...
But it also makes you think about how there is almost no space for love in a harsh and cruel world like this. Essun says she did it to keep Nassun alive. Better Nassun hate her than be dead. This, of course, makes me think about how Essun smothered her own baby son because she thought, better he die than he live as a slave. And later on, Nassun sees how completely her father is consumed by hatred, and she has to kill her own father or he would kill her. She is so overcome by grief and fury that she chooses to hate and blame Essun for it. She thinks, her mother can take her hatred. It makes you wonder if love is even possible.
Nassun's relationships are all incredibly complex. Her father is a piece of shit, by the way. I couldn't stand him. He was traumatised by something horrible that orogenes did when he was young, and as a result, he sees every orogene as that orogene, even his own children. He kills his son and alternates between love and hatred for his daughter. That's trauma - you're frozen in the past at that incident, and you see everything through the lens of the past. Nassun is forced to read his motivations and manipulate him to keep herself safe.
This is not even touching on Nassun's relationship with Schaffa and her view of orogenes, people like herself, and her own feelings about herself. It's incredibly complex.
Nassun herself gave me complicated feelings. She is basically a child prodigy. Very powerful and gifted, able to do a lot of difficult things easily. Her main motivations are survival, and ensuring that her parental figures (Schaffa, her father) love her. She's a child thrust into a horrible situation and I was bothered by a lot of things she did.
I still don't trust Schaffa and he kind of creeps me out.
The hostility and blaming that Essun experiences again reminded me of The Magnus Archive. A lot of times when there's a lot of trauma, people blame and fight each other.
Anyway, this was a great book, with some pacing issues. Now, on to the next book.